Friday, May 4, 2012

Training My Children

A few weeks ago, I posted about creating an official chore chart for my children. I thought about the various chores that could be assigned to each one of them. I bought poster board to make a chart. I told both of them about the chore chart. I discussed ideas with my husband. But, I still haven't made the chart and set our system in place.

A week or so ago, I ordered a book by Dave Ramsey. I expected the book to be about saving money and getting out of debt. What I did not expect, was a lot of discussion about teaching your children responsibility. Wow! It is obvious that God is talking to me. It is time to get our system of chores set up. Dave Ramsey shares some very good information on training your children to be responsible with their money. He believes that this should be done early. Here's an excerpt from his book, "More Than Enough":

Do not pay allowances to your children. You don't want your children to internalize that everyone should make "allowance" for them. We already have too many people in this country who selfishly believe that. Instead, pay them commissions. Commission means work, get paid; don't work, don't get paid. If the table is not cleaned, or the dog not fed, and Mom or Dad has to catch your slack you get docked some of your pay.

Teaching your children how to use their money responsibly means teaching them to save.

I love the idea of "commissions". I mentioned this to my husband and he apparently liked it too because he told both kids tonight that we were going to start paying them commissions for chores. In the book, Dave Ramsey did mention that for his children, some chores were mandatory and not for pay, some were mandatory and for pay and others were for bonus money.
Today at Wal-Mart, Dasia wanted to look at the Jessie doll (from Toy Story) that she wants. Normally, we tell her that maybe she will get the toy she wants for her birthday or Christmas. Today, I told her that she could save up her money from doing her chores and buy it herself. When we got home, she helped me put away all the groceries so she could earn her doll.

Rather than just pay "commission", we will discuss and set up banks or jars for tithing, saving, and spending money.

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About Me

I am a wife and stay at home mom of a two year old boy and four year old
girl. I left the workforce in December 2010 to take my dream job of
being a full-time mommy. My greatest desire is to love God with my
whole heart and to fulfill His desires for my life.